1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to the field of electrical connecting devices for use with different pitched conductive elements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Because of its economy, convenience, and ease of manipulation as a wiring means for electrically interconnecting spaced components, planarly laminated or flat cable has enjoyed increased popularity in recent years. However, in many cases, the spacing between the conductors of the cable may be different than that between the elements of a connector to which the cable is to be terminated, thereby necessitating a time consuming and laborious slitting operation whereby the insulation of the cable is slit intermediate each of the conductors so that the ends of the conductors may be re-spaced to conform to pitch of the connector elements. Such manual slitting operations must furthermore, be carried out with extreme care to insure that the integrity of the insulating layers is maintained after the assembly is completed. However, the completed assembly thus results in a rather crude, nonuniform cable contour which is not only unsightly, but may lead to undesirable effects when employed in certain high frequency applications. One prior art device for providing an interconnection between differently pitched elements is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,299 issued Dec. 4, 1973 to Nickerson et al, and assigned to the assignee of the instant invention. This device, however, requires a rather complex arrangement of molded or formed components particularly adapted to provide a connection between differently pitched conductive elements in which the respective pitches are even multiples of one another. Accordingly, such device fails to provide the versatility and necessary for many applications in which uneven or non-integral pitch ratios are encountered.